Fox News Guest: Munich Shootings Mean ‘We’re At World War III’

In its supposedly objective coverage of the mass shootings in Munich, Germany, Fox News trotted out an inflammatory Obama-hater and let him fear monger that President Obama and anyone who cares about civil liberties are about to get us all killed by ISIS. But a few hours later, Fox’s own Shepard Smith reported that the shooter appeared to be a right-winger with a beef against foreigners.

Even as I write this, authorities do not know whether the shootings were actually the work of a terrorist or not, as this screen grab from FoxNews.com shows:

But guest Steve Rogers, a former FBI agent who seems to relishblamingObama for all the ills of the world, joined cohost Jon Scott in fear mongering that this was an ISIS attack that should scare the heck out of us.

Scott opened the door by saying that the shooting had “all the hallmarks of an ISIS, maybe lone-wolf style attack.” He asked Rogers, “How do you protect against something like this?”

On Fox, that’s code for “Time to start blaming Obama!”

ROGERS: Look, this administration is allowing thousands, tens of thousands of refugees to come into this country without being properly vetted.

[…] Police officers, locally, they don’t have a clue as to what to look for because it is not their fault. The government has failed to filter critical information to our local cops. This is why we’ve been saying all along on your broadcast and others, they’ve got to get back to getting these little intelligence units, other than the Joint Terrorism Taskforce in each police department across this country. Give those cops the ability and the capability to collect information and then send it up the chain. Everything’s coming down now but it’s not going to local cops. And that’s one of the biggest things we need to do.

Cohost Patti Ann Browne asked, “What do we do, Steve, to secure this area where you have this gunman, maybe still on the loose?”

Short answer: blame Obama!

ROGERS: Well, they’re gonna set up a parameter, hopefully, if they think they have him contained. […] They’re already securing the area because what they’re looking for now is accomplices. But how wide is that perimeter gonna be has not yet been determined ‘cause they have no idea where this individual is.

Look, I just left the Republican National Convention and I could tell you that the people who were there – you know what was on their mind? Not taxes, not the economy, but national security.

BROWN: Yeah.

ROGERS: They are scared to death that what we’re seeing unfold in Germany and in France and what we’re beginning to see unfold here, that these attacks are gonna increase. This is why we have to take action now.

The president has to come to grips with the fact that we are at World War III and he has to use military options to deal with ISIS and terrorist groups in the Mideast and then get that funding down to the local level to combat it here.

But that wasn’t enough politicizing. Brown just happened to point out that Germany has “some of the strictest gun laws in the entire world” and asked how the gunman might have gotten his weapon.

Of course, Rogers was in no position to know. But he was ready to use the question as an opening to spout off about gun control. And Browne was all in once again.

“Well, doesn’t that go to the point that it’s not about guns?” Rogers sneered. “Bad guys are gonna get guns? We want to disarm the good guys.”

Rogers added that there’s a black market for guns and that ISIS has plenty of money to buy them. For extra scaring-for-Trump points, Rogers said ISIS can also buy explosives.

And that led to the next bit of fear mongering for political gain: “We’ve got to give the NSA their power back to do what they must do. And a lot of people are concerned about their rights with regard to privacy but we’re not gonna have a country left to have any rights to exercise!”

And then, “They’re here. It’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when.”

There was no challenge, no attempt to do any actual investigation nor any actual reporter to put such speculation in factual context. No, just an Obama hater shooting off his mouth.

And it appears that Rogers and Scott were all wrong in their suppositions. A few hours later, Shepard Smith reported that the gunman appeared to be a lone-wolf, right-wing nationalist. Even the lower-third banner read, “POLICE: NO INDICATION OF ISLAMIST TERROR.”

But, hey, Fox had already scared its viewers into thinking we're about to be slaughtered by ISIS, thanks to Obama. So, maybe it was Mission Accomplished as far the network is concerned.

Watch the two segments below, from Fox’s July 22 breaking news coverage.

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Now that the dust has settled and the police have released the video/transcript of the lad on a rooftop, it’s clear that he went berserk from the frustration of not being recognised as the native-born German he was. Kids are great at finding weak points. The boy had been subjected to heavy bullying by his peers and the adults around him failed to help him overcome the humiliation. It festered in him for years.

Sorry, Jay. Your post was an excellent example of speculation aka wishful thinking. You wanted him to be something he wasn’t. The search of his home and computer brought up nothing to link him to any religion: only to the credo of mayhem: a fascination with rampage killing sprees (e.g. Breivik in Norway five years ago), not immolation.

I am struck by the total lack of reliability of the early eye-witness accounts: the boy was alone (there were no other two people) and all he had was a handgun, (not a long gun, which immediately brings up the image of machine-gun-like arm not a rifle) and he didn’t disappear into the subway. No, he ran a few hundred yards away and then shot himself. Those so-called witnesses should have been more careful about what they said. Far better to remain silent than to fuel the fires of irresponsible speculation.

The Big O certainly missed an opportunity to strike a blow for Truth, Justice and The American Way when he failed to immediately order a surgical attack on Munich – napalm, barrel bombs or a tactical nuke would have certainly made a statement! Pussy.

“They are scared to death that what we’re seeing unfold in Germany and in France and what we’re beginning to see unfold here, that these attacks are gonna increase. This is why we have to take action now.”

OK Steve, HOWABOUTYOUSHOWING US THEWAY BY MARCHINGTHE A**ES OF YOURMILITARYAGEDLOVEDONESDOWN TO YOURNEARESTARMEDFORCESRECRUITINGCENTERRIGHTTHISINSTANT? I’m sure the line there is not long. It’s time for chickenhawks like you to PUT UP OR SHUT UP!

It’s a natural progression for right-wingers driven crazy by all the talk radio and Fox News hype over ISIS to ratchet up their vomit to it’s a World War all over again. And, yep, the counter moves to 3.

This is probably the most disturbing ideological trend I see in right-wing land: Congress and the President need to formally declare war on Islamic terrorism.

Founded in Republican nostalgia over America’s peak as a moral global power during World War II, the implications of a formal declaration of war is more terrifying to me than the terrorists themselves. Why?

ISIS, their daddy al Qaeda, and various offshoots of the same are causing huge security issues overseas in unstable countries in the Middle East and Africa. However, they are not the Axis powers of World War II and developed nations have no comparable threat to their sovereignty.

As I keep saying, terrorism is the tool of the weak, not the strong. It’s no coincidence as ISIS is seeing huge setbacks in their conventional ground war they’re ratcheting up the terrorism. So at a time when we’re actually winning, particular in ground zero Iraq and Syria, Republicans are freaking out worse than ever.

A formal declaration of war will lead to more Afghanistan and Iraq like military ground wars using masses of U.S. troops. World War III is bound to be an expensive and bloody mistake forcing us to inject large numbers of troops in the Middle East (and expanded to Africa?) for decades to come.

Watched Al Jazeera for this because they were the most even-handed. Was very impressed by two German terrorism analysts who insisted on the need to avoid speculation because that’s precisely what any self-respecting terrorist wants to do. Sheeesh!

Now, even the most rabid, hate-filled fascist should be able to understand that nothing instills fear more effectively than a flurry of clueless comments by ignorant people who play into the hands of the terrorists. They are aiding and abetting. Complices.

PS to Jay Dillon: Disturbed minority youth sometimes try to fit in by joining a loud-mouthed mainstream group and the entry procedure may involve such actions. Look at some of the videos on the neo-Nazi movement in Germany and you will see more than a few less-than-lily-white heads.